Utah Jazz forward Jaren Jackson Jr. is likely to miss the rest of the regular season with a knee injury, the team announced.

The team said Jackson will undergo surgery to remove a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) growth in his left knee, and the injury was identified after an MRI.

Jackson, Jr. will have surgery in the coming days over the All-Star break, and the team said he is expected to make a full recovery.

Jackson Jr., 26, is averaging 19.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.4 blocks in 48 games this season for Utah, who sit at 18-37 at the All-Star break and will likely miss the postseason for the fourth straight year. He was traded last week from the Memphis Grizzlies, where he spent the first seven seasons of his career, to the Jazz in a deal that included three first-round draft picks.

Jackson Jr. won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2022-23, is a two-time NBA All-Star, and a two-time All-Defensive First Team selection

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant said that he is playing on an ‘old head’ team at the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, but said there isn’t a concern about how hard his team will play.

Durant will suit up for the USA Stripes team in the All-Star Game, which features a U.S. vs. the World format. Other ‘old heads’ on the team with the 37-year-old Durant include Stephen Curry (age 37, but injured and will not play), LeBron James (41) and Kawhi Leonard (34).

The 16-time All-Star also said people should ask the Europeans players if they will play hard, because in the past they haven’t, just like players from the United States

‘You should ask the Europeans and the World team if they’re going to compete,’ Durant said ‘If you look at Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic now, let’s go back and look at what they do in the All-Star Game. Is that competition? So we haven’t questioned what they’ve been doing. But we’re going to question the old heads, and the Americans.

‘But these two dudes out there, Luka and Jokic, they don’t care about the game at all. These dudes be laying on the floor. They’re shooting from half court. But you’ve got to worry about the old heads playing hard? I can read between the lines, bro. It’s just an overall topic that everybody’s been talking about.’

Durant was asked about San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, who said he plans on giving maximum effort.

‘We’ll see,’ Durant said.

‘He said that last year too, They said it was the worst All-Star Game that people watched. So we’re going to see. Who knows what’s going to happen? This format might change the game, but who knows? We’ll see.’

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Breezy Johnson is coming home with more than an Olympic gold medal.

The newly minted downhill champion got engaged Thursday, Feb. 12 after the super-G, her last race of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games. With Johnson’s teammates surrounding them in the finish area, Connor Watkins got down on one knee in the snow and proposed.

Johnson began crying when she realized what was happening. When Watkins asked her to marry him, she nodded, beaming through her tears.

‘I had told him that I always dreamed of getting proposed to at the Olympics, so I had an inkling,’ Johnson said.

‘It felt fitting to kind of combine two of my loves,’ she said when asked why she wanted to get engaged at the Olympics. ‘And I don’t know, it’s a special place at the Olympics. I feel like there’s a lot of mystique around it.

‘And also you get free photography!’

The couple has been together for almost 2.5 years, and Watkins said he’s been planning the proposal for about a year. He had Johnson’s ring custom made – it’s a blue sapphire stone set between two curving white gold bands, one of which is filled with white sapphires – and made sure her family was all here.

He even had a Plan B in case the finish area didn’t work out.

‘You never know how the day’s going to work out. Sometimes the mountain’s going to be unforgiving,’ Watkins said.

As part of the proposal, Watkins also gave Johnson a note with lyrics from Taylor Swift’s ‘The Alchemy,’ which is believed to be about her romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Johnson said it’s fitting because the song came out about the time they moved in together, and it’s about a poet and an athlete.

‘I feel like he’s the poet and I’m the sports person,’ Johnson said, grinning. ‘I feel like it’s so fitting. … I feel like we always hear the song and we smile and think about each other.

‘So it’s just kind of really special to us.’

The U.S. Ski Team and Team USA posted photos and video of the proposal, and Johnson was flooded with congratulations. Federica Brignone, who won the super-G, also congratulated them.

‘I didn’t see it,’ Brignone said. ‘But congrats to her. That’s amazing.’

Johnson and Watkins met on Bumble. They went to brunch on their first date, and Watkins said he had no idea who Johnson was until he asked her what she did.

‘I was a little taken aback. I had very little knowledge of ski racing and everything else,’ said Watkins, who works in the construction industry.

‘Over the past couple years, I’ve really grown to love it,’ he added, joking that he’s ‘outkicking my coverage.’

Johnson was one of 17 skiers who did not finish the super-G today. But she collected the first medal of these Games for Team USA when she won the women’s downhill earlier this week.

And now she has an engagement ring, too.

‘I mean, who doesn’t want to leave with a couple pieces of metal?’ Johnson joked.

Tang ripped his team following the Wildcats’ 91-62 home loss to Cincinnati — a third straight home loss by 24 or more points and fifth straight loss overall.

‘This was embarrassing,’ Tang said. ‘These dudes do not deserve to wear this uniform, and there will be very few of them in it next year. I’m embarrassed for the university, I’m embarrassed for our fans, and our student section. It’s just ridiculous.

‘We have practice at 6 a.m. tomorrow. I have no answers or no words. Y’all got two questions, so whoever wants to ask two questions, I’ll answer ’em to the best of my ability right now. But right now, I’m pissed.’

The Wildcats (10-14, 1-10 Big 12) allowed 16 Cincinnati 3-pointers, second-most ever by a K-State opponent. The team’s lack of effort was highlighted by a failed block out on a missed free throw allowing a Bearcats player get the rebound and dunk.

About 20 Kansas State students wore paper bags over their heads with messages pleading for someone to pay Tang’s $18.6 million buyout. Fans booed the Wildcats during a first-half timeout when they were down by 22 at the under-eight timeout.

‘These dudes have to have some pride, man,’ Tang said. ‘It means something to wear a K-State uniform. It means something to put on this purple, man. Our university’s all about that, and it’s why I love this place, man. They don’t love this place, so they don’t deserve to be here.’

The next question was about the paper bags and the booing.

‘I’d wear a paper bag, too, if I was them,’ Tang said as he got up and walked away.

Colorado men’s basketball suffered its most lopsided loss of the 2025-26 season on Wednesday, Feb. 11, falling 78-44 at No. 16 Texas Tech.

The Buffaloes’ coach had another, more succinct way of describing what unfolded.

In his post-game news conference, longtime Colorado coach Tad Boyle said the 34-point drubbing was a “good, old-fashioned (expletive)-whoopin’” after his team fell to 4-8 in Big 12 play.

“There’s just no other way to say it,” Boyle said. “A lot of you guys are from West Texas. You probably know what that is. We took one tonight. Credit Texas Tech. They have a motto with their program that the toughest team wins. There wasn’t even a question who the tougher team was tonight.”

The Buffs shot a season-low 29.1% from the field, missing 39 of their 55 shots, and gave up 17 offensive rebounds, off of which Texas Tech got 21 second-chance points. Texas Tech All-American forward JT Toppin brutalized Colorado on the boards, grabbing 18 rebounds by himself.

It was the Buffs’ second loss this season to the Red Raiders, though the first came by only two points just 32 days earlier.

“I’m embarrassed by our performance,” Boyle said. “I’m embarrassed for our university. I’m embarrassed for the city of Boulder. I’m embarrassed for the state of Colorado. I’m embarrassed for every former player that’s worn this uniform. We’ve got to own this.”

Picked to finish 15th in the 16-team Big 12 in the league’s preseason poll, the Buffs got off to a 12-3 start this season, including a 2-0 mark in conference play. As they’ve gotten into the toughest part of their schedule, though, their fortunes have waned, with eight losses in their past 10 games. Four of those losses came against teams in the top 20 of the latest USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

Boyle is in his 16th season as Colorado’s coach and has fared well at a program where it’s difficult to win, especially in the revamped Big 12. He had led the Buffs to the NCAA Tournament in six of the past 14 seasons in which it was held. Just two years ago, Colorado won 26 games and made it to the second round of the tournament. His 326 victories at the school are the most in program history.

As he discussed his team’s woeful performance on Wednesday, Boyle harkened back to his days at Northern Colorado, where he was the head coach from 2007-10. He led a program that played in the Big Sky Conference and regularly took commercial flights that required the team to wake up at 5 a.m. the day after a game to board a plane, fly into Denver and then drive an hour to the school’s campus in Greeley, Colorado.

They’re the kind of travel headaches he wished his current team had to endure after its performance against Texas Tech.

“That’s what we deserve right now. We deserve to be on a 6 a.m. flight out of Lubbock — commercial, Southwest or whatever airline you choose,” Boyle said. “We don’t deserve a charter plane back to Boulder tonight. We got one. We paid for it, but we wasted our money. We wasted our university’s money and that’s on me. I’ll take the ownership of this because I’m the head coach. The buck stops with me. But I’m embarrassed. I’ve not said I’m embarrassed very often, but I’m embarrassed tonight.”

We know who will start from the front row of the 2026 Daytona 500.

Now it’s time to sort out the rest of the starting grid.

Wednesday night’s pole qualifying session ended with Kyle Busch and Chase Briscoe securing their spots at the front of the field for the 68th running of the biggest event in NASCAR. That also means they lead the field for today’s two Daytona Duels to determine almost the whole starting grid.

The Duel at Daytona sets the field for the 2026 Daytona 500 using lineups determined by last night’s pole qualifying results. As the polesitter, Busch will lead the way from the front for Duel 1 at Daytona. Subsequently, and Briscoe leads the way for Duel 2 at Daytona.

The Duels are two 60-lap (150-mile) races tonight to finalize the starting order for Sunday’s race. Both Daytona Duels include regular season points for the Cup Series drivers.

Here’s everything to know about the Daytona Duels:

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How to watch the Duels at Daytona: Time, TV channel, live stream

• Date: Thursday, Feb. 12
• Duel 1 Time: 7 p.m. ET
• Duel 2 Time: 8:45 p.m. ET (approximate)
• TV: FS1 (both duel races)
• Streaming: Fubo, FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app

What are the Duels at Daytona? What to know about unique qualifying

For the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500 uses a unique qualifying format. Things start off with the usual time-based format last night for pole qualifying. From there, everything changes.

The Duels at Daytona use two 60-lap races to set the grid. Duel 1, led by the pole winner from pole qualifying, features the odd-numbered finishers from qualifying. The finishing order from Duel 1 will determine the inside lane order for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Duel 2, led by the second-fastest driver in pole qualifying, includes the even-numbered finishers from the qualifying session. This race’s finishing order determines the outside lane order for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Croix Bethune’s trade from the Washington Spirit left her teammate Trinity Rodman ‘sad’ after their potent partnership was dismantled.

Bethune was traded to the Kansas City Current in a blockbuster move on Wednesday, Feb. 11, with the Spirit receiving $1 million in return for the playmaker.

The 24-year-old emerged as a star during two seasons with the Spirit, winning the NWSL Rookie of the Year award in 2024 before being named to the NWSL Second XI in 2025.

Bethune has also earned seven caps with the U.S. women’s national team after making her debut in 2024, scoring her first international goal last month against Chile.

In a club release, Spirit president of soccer operations Haley Carter said Bethune requested the move.

“After conversations about her desire to explore development opportunities in a different environment, we were able to structure a deal that honored her request while securing significant value for our club, making it the third-highest intra-league transfer in NWSL history and a top ten mark globally,’ Carter said.

Bethune and Rodman developed a strong connection on and off the field during their time together with the Spirit, and Rodman posted a series of photos of the duo on Instagram after the trade was announced.

‘I’m sad,’ Rodman wrote.

The pair will at least have the opportunity to continue playing together with the USWNT.

Claire Hutton traded to Bay FC

The Current were busy on Wednesday, as they also traded midfielder Claire Hutton to Bay FC in a second major transaction.

Hutton, 20, moves to the Bay Area in exchange for $1.1 million.

The holding midfielder has put together an impressive resume despite her age, earning NWSL Best XI First Team honors last season.

Hutton also has 13 caps already with the USWNT. During a January match against Paraguay, Hutton wore the captain’s armband for the final portion of the game, becoming the youngest USWNT player to do so in the modern era.

‘Claire is an important signing for us. She’s a top-quality player who is tight on the ball, and she has the mobility and physical presence to break up play,” Bay FC head coach Emma Coates said.

“Despite her age she brings experience and a strong mentality, and we believe she has the potential to become one of the best midfielders in the world.’

MILAN — Jessie Diggins, the most decorated cross-country skier in U.S. history, is adding to her collection of Olympic hardware.

Following two disappointing results to start the 2026 Winter Olympics, Diggins returned to the podium and claimed a bronze medal in the women’s 10km freestyle interval start on Thursday following a gutsy performance that ended with her wailing in pain.

The 34-year-old competed with bruised ribs suffered in a ‘big crash’ on Saturday, which made it difficult to breathe and ski, Diggins told NBC. Diggins collapsed in exhaustion after crossing the finish line in bronze-medal position with a time of 23:38.9. Her effort secured her fourth career Olympic medal in her fourth and final Games.

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Diggins immediately grabbed at the right side of her abdomen after she collapsed in the snow. She remained down for several minutes as American teammate Hailey Swirbul took off her skis and consoled her. Swirbul eventually helped Diggins to her feet and they shared an embrace, before Diggins’ signature smile emerged.

Diggins had to dig deep into the pain cave during the race, a “special place” she goes when things get tough.

“It’s metaphorical,” she explained to USA TODAY Sports in November. “When everything hurts, your whole body is screaming at you to stop, your lungs are on fire, your muscles are seizing up, and you just figure out how to keep moving forward anyway. So then you’re in the pain cave, you’re slogging through it.”

Sweden’s Frida Karlsson (22:49.2) and Ebba Andersson (23:35.8) finished in first and second place. Sweden has dominated the women’s cross-country events so far at the 2026 Winter Games. Karlsson and Andersson finished first and second in the 10km + 10km skiathlon and the Swedes swept the podium in the women’s sprint classic.

Thursday’s result marks Diggins’ best Olympic finish in the 10km freestyle after previously finishing fifth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and eighth at the 2022 Beijing Games. Her medal follows U.S. skier Ben Ogden’s silver medal finish in the men’s sprint classic on Tuesday.

Diggins bounced back from a disappointing start to the 2026 Winter Games. She finished in fifth place in the women’s 10km + 10km skiathlon on Saturday after the crash and failed to qualify for the women’s sprint classic quarterfinals on Tuesday, the same event she medaled in at the 2022 Beijing Games. The women’s sprint classic result ended Diggins’ streak of finishing in the top 10 in all six women’s events in both the 2018 and 2022 Games.

Despite the injury, Diggins was all smiles before pushing out the starting gate from the 44th position in the women’s 10km freestyle. She sported purple sparkles on her cheeks, continuing a pre-race ritual she’s done for as long as she can remember.

Her parents Clay and Debra Diggins were in the stands to cheer her on as she jumped for joy on the podium at the medal ceremony. Chants of ‘Jes-sie! Jes-sie!’ broke out among the crowd.

Diggins credits her parents with sparking her passion for skiing, reminiscing of riding in a backpack on her father’s back as her parents skied every weekend. ‘Some of my formative memories (are) pulling on my dad’s hair and yelling at him to go faster,’ she told USA TODAY Sports with a smile. 

Diggins won Team USA’s first Olympic gold in cross country skiing in the team sprint alongside Kikkan Randall at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. She claimed bronze in the sprint classic at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and Diggins added to her set with a silver in the 30k freestyle at the Beijing Games.

In the 10km interval start free, skiers start one by one at 30-second intervals. The freestyle technique, where skiers makes lateral movements relative to the direction of travel, is used throughout the race. 

In addition to Diggins, Americans Novie McCabe (finished 31st; 25:12.8), Kendall Kramer (37th; 25:34.9) and Hailey Swirbul (38th; 24:45.3) were also in the field.

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